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Embracing the Flexible Workplace and Corporate Social Responsibility

By Staff Writer Atlanta Trend
  • Oct 06, 2021

In her 20-year career with ADP, Lisa Dickson has overachieved in every role she has had. Lisa’s first job with ADP was in field sales where she was first recognized with the Class Excellence award in her new hire sales training class.  She was then named the HR Specialist of the year her first year with ADP.  She then moved on to be one of the top 10 sales associates in her division for two years straight. Sales Leadership was her next calling and Lisa spent several years off and on over her career in this area.   During her tenure in sales and sales leadership, Lisa was an ADP President’s Club Qualifier every year. Beyond field sales Lisa has worked domestically and internationally across many areas of Sales Commercial Operations: Sales Learning, Leadership Coaching, Sales Strategy, Sales Operations and Sales Enablement.  Among other things, she has worked to help integrate acquisitions, launch new products to market, and help navigate the future of work.  "I've been fortunate to have a number of mentors who have encouraged me to accept new roles with greater responsibility," she says, "and the best thing is that ADP offers such a wide variety of career opportunities.” 


  
Now a Senior Director in Worldwide Commercial Operations, Lisa also spends a lot of time involved in various corporate social responsibility initiatives for ADP.  She is the Central Board Global Chair of “Thrive,” a business resource group at ADP focusing on disability inclusion.ADP’s Business Resource Groups help associates connect globally with a network of people that share common interests and experiences. "Thrive works to foster engagement and career development opportunities for members. Thrive also provides insights around disability inclusion with business partners to enhance products, attract talent and identify business and volunteer outreach opportunities. Being able to have a voice and make an impact internally and externally is very fulfilling," she says.  She was very proud to share that this past July, ADP received a top score on Disability:IN’sDisability Equality Index® (DEI), earning ADP the designation as a Best Place to Work for Disability Inclusion.

 

“As an associate with both seen and unseen disabilities, I'm proud to work for a company as committed as ADP is to diversity, equity, and inclusion, specifically disability inclusion. Over my 20-year career, I've been supported along the way. I have been able to align my strengths to work opportunities that make positive impacts on the business while meeting my needs personally," she says.

 

Lisa was an established sales leader in ADP when she noticed that work-life balance was becoming more important.   Once I married and had a baby, I started to feel the demands of work and family life," she says. 

 

At the advice of a leader in the company, Lisa worked with an executive coach who helped her define guidelines on what was important personally and professionally.  The coach advised Lisa to use the guidelines to direct her future career choices. Lisa started to look for jobs that matched her guidelines and found that looking at a job description alone was not enough.  Lisa realized she needed to share her goals with company leaders. Once she started doing this, it allowed her to “start to create flexibility in jobs that aligned with her strengths and career interests," she says. 

 

Being able to work from home more often and with more flexible hours, Lisa felt that she had achieved the work-life balance that we all dream about. "Honest communication and delivering on my work responsibilities was the key," she says. "At ADP I've had multiple career opportunities that fit my personal and professional goals as my life changed - from single to married, raising children and caring for aging parents.

 

As a global technology leader in providing human capital management (HCM) solutions, it's no wonder that ADP takes employee welfare so seriously. “ADP believes that success is driven by an organization’s most valuable asset: its people. ADP is committed to attracting and retaining the world’s greatest talent; building diverse, inclusive teams; and being the kind of workplace where work aligns with passion," says Lisa.

 

One of ADP’s core values, ADP’s commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility for

Associatescentered on:


Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

As a global leader in human capital management, ADP knows that attracting and retaining top talent is critical to its growth in the short- and long-term. ADP strives to ensure its workplace culture is inclusive and values the contribution of every individual.


Associate Engagement


Simply put, stronger associate engagement means better productivity, better retention, and better client service. ADP leverages its unified talent activation solution, StandOut® powered by ADP(R), to help team leaders turn their people’s natural talent and strengths into extraordinary performance.

 

Flexible Work Environment

 

Flexibility at ADP is the company’s opportunity to consider how, where and when work gets done in a way that contributes to the success of its business and clients. ADP has found that workforce flexibility is valued by talent in the market and helps bring out the best in its associates.

 

Fostering Employee Success

 

Being a large, global organization with multiple businesses, functions, and areas of focus, ADP has the ability to offer its associates a wide array of career paths. This offers value to both the associate and ADP by empowering growth in knowledge and experience and fueling innovation.

 

Health, Wellness and Safety

 

ADP has long supported and fostered a culture of health and wellness throughout the company and is committed to implementing programs designed to keep its associates healthy while protecting the business.

 

"Some people still think of ADP as just a payroll company," says Lisa, "but we're so much more than that. We are a comprehensive global provider of cloud-based human capital management (HCM) solutions that are driven by cutting edge technology, vast workforce data and incredible expertise.”  In fact, Lisa was first hired by the company in 2000 because of her expertise in human capital management.  Today, “ADP serves over 920,000 clients in 140 countries around the world," she says. “We have 58,000 ADP associates across the globe.” 

 

In her present role, Lisa leads a variety of strategic commercial operations initiatives for Global Enterprise Sales. “As an individual who thrives through connection, I am at my best when I am in work situations that allow me to be the catalyst to bring things together to make something bigger than it is now.”  Lisa says she is fortunate that she has been able to use these strengths during the pandemic to help the teams she supports successfully transition to a virtual business environment while continuing to provide the support and service buyers need when making a large buying decision.   In addition to chairing Thrive, Lisa has also participated for 5 years as a member of Team ADP with Cycle for the Cause, The Northeast AIDS Ride.   “Normally about 150 associates cycle 275 miles from Boston to New York City to raise money.  During COVID we've been doing the event as a team virtually," she says. "Fortunately, people still contribute." Team ADP over the past few years has raised significant contributions as an Endurance Sponsor for the ride. 

 

"I have worked remote for over 13 years, long before the pandemic," says Lisa. "Because of ADP’s flexibility, I’ve been able to find a work environment that works well for my needs.” Her advice for anyone looking for work life balance is to start by defining what is important to you both personally and professionally, have a conversation with your leaders and always remember to deliver on your work commitments. Lisa also encourages everyone to get involved with their colleagues in the community to give back.  “At ADP, associates are champions for change, share a passion for our work and the inspiration we get from one another. That’s what makes working at ADP special.”

 

“Lisa’s dedicated efforts and the passion she shows for her work each day are inspiring,” shared Gus Blanchard, chief marketing officer for ADP. “The drive that propelled her to the top of her field is now powering impactful change through her efforts with ADP’s Thrive business resource group. At ADP, we encourage our associates to bring their whole selves to work, and it’s their unique experiences that help us deliver truly innovative solutions.”